How to Stay on Track When Life (Inevitably) Derails Your Plans
Your Weekly Planning System is Set—Now Let’s Keep It Running Smoothly
Last week, we built a system—a real, structured way to plan your week so your most important work actually gets done.
No more relying on wishful thinking. No more assuming that Future You will magically have more time, energy, or discipline than Present You (because let’s be real—Future You is just as overwhelmed, just as distracted, and just as likely to get sidetracked by a snack break that turns into a Netflix binge).
But here’s the thing…
Even with the best plan in place, life will absolutely interrupt you.
🚨 A family member will need something “urgent” (that somehow was not urgent until the exact moment you sat down to write).
📞 An unexpected call will derail your morning (and now you’re in a 45-minute conversation you didn’t sign up for).
💻 Your internet will die (because of course it will, right when you need to upload something important).
🧠 Or your own brain will stage a protest and refuse to cooperate (we had a plan, brain—what happened?!).
And suddenly, that carefully scheduled work session? Poof.
So this week, we’re tackling the next crucial step: how to stay on track even when things don’t go as planned.
Because having a plan is one thing—keeping it on track is another.
Let’s dig in. 🚀
Why Good Plans Fail (And How to Prevent It)
You’ve probably had this experience:
You plan your week perfectly. Every task has a place. You know exactly when you’re writing, when you’re handling admin work, when you’re taking calls.
And then Monday hits.
By noon, you’re already behind, juggling three unexpected tasks that weren’t even on your radar. By Wednesday, your schedule looks like a battlefield, and by Friday, you’re just trying to survive.
So… what went wrong?
It’s not that your plan was bad. It’s that your plan didn’t account for real life.
Most people fall into one of two traps:
Trap #1: The Rigid Planner
You schedule every minute of your day with zero flexibility.
One small disruption (a call runs long, a task takes twice as long as expected) and boom—your whole plan is off, sending you into a spiral of frustration and schedule-shuffling.
Trap #2: The Wishful Thinker
You block out time for work but underestimate distractions, energy dips, or life happening.
You assume you’ll be at peak motivation all day… and forget that 3 PM You is not as optimistic as Monday Morning You.
Trap #3: The Energy Denier (New Player Unlocked)
You schedule everything based on what you want to happen, not what your body and brain are actually capable of.
You ignore the fact that Mondays feel different than Thursdays.
You forget that the first week of the month might be high-energy, while the last week might be dragging.
You don’t account for cyclical patterns in focus and creativity (hello, hormone cycles, burnout waves, and seasonal dips!).
The fix? A plan that’s built to bend—but not break.
This means:
✔️ Building in flexibility for when energy levels shift (because they will).
✔️ Noticing your natural rhythms—do you write better in the mornings? Is Wednesday your “blah” day? Plan accordingly.
✔️ Leaving buffer time for when things inevitably take longer than you expected.
A good schedule isn’t one that looks perfect on paper—it’s one that still works when real life happens.
The 3-Part System for Staying on Track (Even When Things Go Off-Road)
1️⃣ The “Overflow Block” Method (AKA: Saving Your Own Sanity)
You already know that Maker vs. Manager time is critical—because deep creative work (Maker tasks) and admin/business tasks (Manager tasks) require completely different types of focus.
But here’s where most people mess up: They schedule their days like robots instead of real humans.
You are not a machine that executes tasks with perfect efficiency.
Meetings run long. Emails pop up. A last-minute request from a collaborator derails your morning. Your brain refuses to cooperate, and suddenly that “super productive” time block turns into you staring at a blinking cursor.
So here’s the fix: Plan for disruptions instead of reacting to them.
📌 Rule: Schedule 75% of your available time, not 100%.
Why? Because something unexpected WILL happen.
Instead of packing your day so tight that one delay throws everything into chaos, build “Overflow Blocks” into your schedule. These are designated spaces for catching up, rescheduling, or pivoting without blowing up your entire workflow.
📌 How This Fits with PARA & GTD:
Overflow Blocks act as built-in buffers to absorb unpredictable tasks—so your structured schedule doesn’t implode.
PARA’s Areas & Projects give your tasks a clear home, so you can quickly decide what to shift if needed.
GTD-style weekly reviews help you adjust for anything that slips through the cracks.
Why This Works:
✔ Protects your deep work by ensuring disruptions don’t eat into Maker time.
✔ Stops Manager tasks from creeping into your whole day.
✔ Keeps your schedule flexible while maintaining structure.
Pro Tip: Even if your day stays on track, use Overflow Blocks for high-impact bonus work—batch content, brainstorm ideas, or tackle quick wins.
If you don’t need them? Congratulations, you just earned guilt-free free time.
2️⃣ The “Daily Reboot” (A 5-Minute Nightly Habit That Saves Your Week)
The biggest mistake people make?
They assume the plan they made on Sunday will still make sense by Thursday.
But here’s the thing: Your energy isn’t a constant.
Some days, you’re on fire—knocking out tasks like a productivity superhero. Other days? You’re staring at your screen, feeling like you need a nap just from existing.
Instead of blindly following a schedule that may already be out of date, do a quick “Reboot” at the end of each workday to make sure your plan still makes sense for the version of you that’s actually showing up tomorrow.
📌 How to do a Daily Reboot:
✅ Check what didn’t get done. What got bumped? Does it need to be rescheduled, delegated, or—let’s be honest—deleted because it was never that important?
✅ Look at tomorrow’s plan. Does it match your actual energy levels? If today wiped you out, do you need to swap deep work for lighter admin tasks? If you’re riding a motivation high, should you batch more creative work?
✅ Move anything urgent to the next day—before you log off. Don’t wait until morning to scramble—adjust now while you’re still in work mode.
Energy Accommodations: Adjusting Your Plan to Match Reality
Your calendar doesn’t know how much sleep you got last night.
Your to-do list doesn’t care if you’re on an energy upswing or crashing hard.
That’s why this reboot matters. It helps you:
✔️ Shift deep work to your best-focus times (and move lower-energy tasks to when you’re dragging).
✔️ Recognize patterns in your week (maybe Wednesdays are always low-energy—adjust accordingly!).
✔️ Prevent burnout by balancing workload (if today was packed, lighten tomorrow where possible).
Time required: 5 minutes. Impact: Saves you hours of scrambling.
Instead of waking up and thinking Wait, what am I supposed to do today?, you start the day already knowing exactly where to focus—without forcing yourself into a plan that no longer fits.
3️⃣ The “Pivot Rule” (When Plans Change, Change the Plan—Not the Goal)
Some days, everything will go completely off the rails.
Not just a little off track—no, I’m talking full-blown dumpster fire mode.
🚨 Your deep work session? Hijacked by an “urgent” email that wasn’t actually urgent.
🧠 Your brain? Decided to clock out early.
⏳ Your schedule? LOL.
But here’s the thing: That’s not failure—that’s life.
And instead of abandoning the whole plan like a toddler flipping a Monopoly board, you pivot.
📌 Rule: Change the approach, not the goal.
✔️ Did your morning deep work session get hijacked? Move it to an afternoon slot instead of deleting it entirely. (Just because it didn’t happen at 9 AM doesn’t mean it’s dead to you.)
✔️ Too drained to write? Use that time for editing, outlining, or research instead of doom-scrolling Instagram and calling it a loss. (Your creative brain will thank you.)
✔️ Completely out of time? Move today’s top priority to your next overflow block—or swap it with a less urgent task. (You’re in charge of your schedule, not the other way around.)
Because here’s the truth: A missed task isn’t the end of the world.
What matters isn’t that everything goes exactly according to plan—it’s that you have a plan to recover when it doesn’t.
The One Automation That Makes This Even Easier
At this point, you have a solid system:
✔ You’ve built a realistic plan for your week.
✔ You’ve created overflow time to catch unexpected issues.
✔ You’ve got a daily reboot to keep things on track.
But even the best systems can break if you don’t check in with them.
So here’s an automation that will save you from forgetting everything when life gets busy.
📌 The Smarter “Daily Review” Automations (Because You Deserve an Upgrade)
We can do better than just a simple calendar reminder. Let’s add some intelligence to this process so it’s actually useful when you see it.
1️⃣ The “Your Future Self Will Thank You” Recap Bot
💡 What it does: Instead of a vague reminder, this automation collects your unfinished tasks, highlights what’s most urgent, and drops it neatly into your inbox or task manager—so you don’t have to go looking for what you forgot.
How to set it up:
1️⃣ Use Zapier or Make.com to connect your task manager (Notion, Todoist, ClickUp, Trello, etc.) with your email or Slack.
2️⃣ Filter for any tasks that are incomplete or due tomorrow.
3️⃣ At 5 PM (or your chosen time), Zapier sends you a summary with:
✅ Unfinished tasks from today
⏳ Top 3 priorities for tomorrow
📌 Anything tagged "Urgent" or "Deadline"
📌 Why this works:
No more “What was I supposed to do today?” moments.
It surfaces only the important stuff—not everything on your to-do list.
It’s like your past self doing your future self a favor (and who doesn’t want that?).
2️⃣ The “AI Assistant That Saves Your Sanity” Automation
💡 What it does: Uses AI to summarize what’s on your plate and gives you a daily check-in, so you don’t even have to think about reviewing your schedule.
How to set it up:
1️⃣ Use Zapier + OpenAI (GPT) + Google Calendar or Notion.
2️⃣ Zapier pulls your next-day schedule & tasks at 5 PM.
3️⃣ GPT writes a short summary (“Hey! Here’s what’s on deck for tomorrow: You have 3 meetings, a writing sprint from 9-11, and a reminder to email your editor.”).
4️⃣ That summary gets sent to your email, Slack, or even read aloud by Alexa.
📌 Why this works:
No digging through apps—the AI highlights what matters.
It’s a low-energy way to get clarity (because decision fatigue is real).
Bonus: You can ask it for a motivational boost (“Future You says you got this”).
3️⃣ The “If I Ignore This, It Gets Louder” Automation
💡 What it does: Reminds you about unfinished tasks—but only if you haven’t done them (because nobody needs more notifications).
How to set it up:
1️⃣ Use Zapier + your task manager (Todoist, Notion, ClickUp, etc.).
2️⃣ Zapier checks for tasks marked “important” but not completed.
3️⃣ If there are unfinished tasks:
First, it sends a polite reminder (“Hey, don’t forget about this.”).
If ignored by the next day, it bumps it louder (“Still not done? Reschedule or delegate.”).
If ignored for 3 days, it pings you in Slack/email with a nudge like “Real talk—are you ever actually going to do this?”
📌 Why this works:
It stops forgotten tasks from falling into the abyss.
You get grace before escalation—gentle at first, but firm if ignored.
It forces you to reschedule, delegate, or delete lingering tasks.
4️⃣ The “My Task List Fills Itself” System
💡 What it does: Uses past data to auto-fill tomorrow’s priority list so you’re not staring at a blank page every morning.
How to set it up:
1️⃣ Use Zapier + Google Sheets or Notion to track:
✅ Completed tasks
⏳ Repeating tasks
📆 Unfinished tasks
2️⃣ Every evening, Zapier auto-generates tomorrow’s list based on:What didn’t get done
Your repeating habits
Your “Most Important Tasks” tag
3️⃣ You wake up to a task list already waiting for you.
📌 Why this works:
It removes decision fatigue—your plan is made for you.
No forgotten tasks—everything gets rolled forward automatically.
You can still edit it manually (but most of the work is done).
Your Action Step This Week
This week, let’s test this system in action.
✅ Schedule at least TWO Overflow Blocks in your week.
✅ Do a quick “Daily Reboot” at the end of each workday.
✅ Choose and build one of the automations to help you stay on track.
And as always—hit reply and tell me:
What’s the #1 thing that usually derails your week? I bet we can find a way to systemize or automate it.
Until next week—keep building systems that work for your creative brain.